Dreaming of His Pen Pal's Kiss - Jessie Gussman Page 0,14

being disappointed. Or seeing him and being awestruck by his name and his prestige in sports.

In other words, he didn’t want her to be like the other girls who had left him when he was in the hospital and never really showed back up.

He wanted her to like him for him. The Computer Geek who was a little rough around the edges and had come from nothing.

Who knew what it was like to have literally nothing.

He considered not going to the festival in Mistletoe at all. But he didn’t need The Big Dude to recommend that he do it for him to think it was a good idea.

He wasn’t really big on Christmas, it had never been special in his childhood, wherever he was.

So it wasn’t that he was necessarily interested in the Christmas aspect, but he supposed the small-town aspect was a draw. Also, The Big Dude seemed to have a lot of respect for the pastor that he knew there. Race Steiner.

All in all, it probably was a good idea.

He picked up his pen and started writing again.

I guess I asked you a bunch of personal questions, and of course, you don’t have to answer anything that makes you uncomfortable. These are just things I know about all my other friends, and I figured I ought to know them about you. You can ask me anything you want too. I almost told you a bunch of stuff about myself, but I decided I didn’t want to bore you.

If you ask, I’ll answer.

I moved around a lot when I was a kid, but I have a memory of a really cool tree. Cool, because it was easy to climb, and I could get to the top without too much trouble. I spent a lot of time up on the top thinking about things. I suppose it’s weird to have a boy that was as active as I was who also thought about stuff at the top of a tree.

In my experience, people are either thinkers or doers, but it’s hard to find someone who does both.

Not that I’m special or anything, that’s just one of the reasons I said I didn’t really fit in.

Have to admit I’m kinda curious about you.

Your friend,

Computer Geek

Chapter 6

Dear Computer Geek,

Yes, we definitely found something we could do together. I love making a garden look good and love getting things to grow, and it would be wonderful to have someone to actually pick the stuff and do something with it.

And if you cook, I’m down for that.

I enjoy cooking too, though. Maybe we could do that together.

Hypothetically course.

I’m not married. And no, I don’t think that was violating the terms of our pen pal agreement.

I don’t have a boyfriend either. Once, a long time ago, there was someone, but I wasn’t enough for him.

I’m sorry about your friends. I guess I’m using that word loosely, because it seems to me that when someone’s in an accident, when they’re in the hospital, when they’re housebound, that’s when they really need you to be there for them.

Maybe that’s the nurse in me coming out though. I just see a lot of that. People in the hospital with no one visiting them. You know they have to have friends.

I guess, if you’ve never been there, you don’t know how important it is to make time.

I’d say that maybe we should take a break from writing during your trip, but if you don’t mind, I might write a note or two, just because I don’t want to get out of the habit.

Isn’t that the way it works?

I’ll quit writing because you’re on a trip, and you don’t write because you’re gone, and then we just never start again.

I won’t if you don’t want me to, though.

I told you before, I don’t have any trouble having a conversation with myself. I can write it down on paper and send it to you.

It’s kind of hard to joke on paper, but that was a joke.

Do you like to laugh?

Laughing,

The Healing Pen

DEAR HEALING PEN,

One boyfriend? That’s it?

Really?

Sorry. I honestly don’t know anybody like that. Hard for me to even imagine that.

I guess you better talk about something else, because I don’t want you to ask me how many girlfriends I’ve had. I’m honestly not sure I could tell you a number. Not sure what counts as a girlfriend anyway. The girls I was seeing before my accident—and yes, that was plural—well, I’m not sure they count as girlfriends or not.

That’s really